[Daily Nation (Kenya)] US President Barack ObamaI am the change that you seek...
on Thursday denied Republican claims he was waging class warfare as he set out to sell his call for tax raise on the rich in states crucial to his reelection bid.
Hours after his combative and populist State of the Union address, Mr Obama appeared first in Iowa, the cradle of the 2008 campaign which swept him to the White House, and then in Arizona, launching a three-day, five-state tour.
Mr Obama hopes to convince voters that his vision of a remodeled economy -- where everybody, not just the wealthy, gets "a fair shot" -- merits handing him a second term in November's election.
He argued that those who earn one million dollars a year should pay at least 30 percent in taxes, decrying loopholes which offer rich Americans, like his possible Republican foe Mitt Romney
...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field...
, a much lower rate on investment income.
"I hear a lot of folks running around calling this class warfare," Mr Obama said at a factory in midwestern Iowa.
"This is not class warfare," Mr Obama said, citing legendary financier Warren Buffett's argument that he should pay a higher tax rate on his vast fortune than his own staff pay on their annual income.
"Asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary is common sense," President B.O. said, warning Americans must decide whether to build an equitable economy, fund education and the military or let the rich evade fair taxes.